List of HiFi DAC on Raspberry Pi（I2S output）

HiFi DAC on Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi has an I2S (Inter-IC Sound) interface. Music data and clock data are exchanged through the I2S. Because clock data is exchanged in the same interface with music data, I2S is so called comparatively a high quality sound interface.

On the other hand, S/P DIF is famous interface to exchange music data trough optical fiber. Music data and clock data are separately transferred, so S/P DIF is relatively large jitter path.

It is getting popular to connect Hi-Fi DAC device and Raspberry Pi via I2S.

There are a lot of Hi-Fi DACs that are specialised to connect Raspberry Pi via I2S.

vendor

product name

DAC IC

zero size

Master Mode (clock)

headphone amp

sampling converter (ASRC)

remarks

price

HIFIBERRY

DAC+ LIGHT

ES9023

◯

$22.90

DAC+ STANDARD

PCM5122

$28.90

DAC+ ZERO

PCM5101

◯

$16.90

DAC+ PRO XLR

PCM5242

22/24MHz

XLR output

$39.90

Allo

Piano 2.1 HI-FI DAC

PCM5142×2

$49.00

PIANO DAC

PCM5122

TPA6133A2

$27.00

BOSS DAC

PCM5122

45/49MHz

$65.00

MINIBOSS DAC

PCM5122

◯

45/49MHz

$39.00

IQaudIO

Pi-DAC+

PCM5122

TPA6133A

€30.00

Pi-DAC Zero

PCM5122

◯

€12.00

Pi-DAC PRO

PCM5142

TPA6133A

balanced output

€42.00

JustBoom

DAC Zero pHAT

PCM5121

◯

TPA6132A2

€20.00

DAC HAT

PCM5122

TPA6133A2

€30.00

pimorori

pHAT DAC

PCM5102

◯

¥1,516

nabe

msBerryDAC

PCM5122

22/24MHz

addable

¥9,980

New Western Electric

Sabreberry DAC ZERO

ES9023

◯

OPA1662

◯

¥7,800

Sabreberry32

ES9018Q2C

45/49MHz

ES9018Q2C

¥19,000

One Board Audio

DAC 01

PCM5242

22/24MHz

OPA1622

25mm output

–

Bright Tone

Terra-Berry2 DAC

AK4490

◯

¥25,000

I couldn’t decide which one I should buy. So I researched. Shown below are summary of that.

comparative analysis of DAC ICs

DAC IC mainly controls a quality of sound. Choosing DAC IC is the most important.

The shown blow is a table of comparison for DAC ICs.

IC vendor

product name

Sampling

DNR(dB)

characteristics

price (DIGIKEY)

Texas Instruments

PCM5101

32bit 384kHz

106

hard and vivid sound

$2.95

PCM5102

32bit 384kHz

112

$5.73

PCM5121

32bit 384kHz

106

$3.68

PCM5122

32bit 384kHz

112

$6.02

PCM5142

32bit 384kHz

112

$7.17

ESS

ES9023

24bit 192kHz

112

soft and sensitive sound

cheap?

ES9018Q2C

32bit 384kHz

121

clear, like being wide open space

never heard bad review for this IC

¥4000?

AKM (Asahikasei)

AK4490

32bit 768kHz

112

Japanese IC close to original sound, sensitive sound

$4.99

PCM51xx by TI

TI produces a lot of products of DAC IC. The last digit of those product numbers means S/N ratio.

“2” has better S/N ratio than “1”. So “2” is recommended.

There is no difference among PCM510x, PCM512x and PCM514x from a perspective of sound quality.